Star Wars: The Phantom Menace Review

The truly epic review/critique/analysis/film making educational video of the 1999 film "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace" There was so much to discuss with this film it had to be long so please don't complain.

tagline: Finally it's here!
original film name:Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
new film name :Star Wars: The Phantom Menace Review
film studio name :Twentieth Century-Fox
edit crew name :RedLetterMedia
Date Original Film Was Released :1999
Date Edit Was Released on FE:December 2009
Original Runtime :133 minutes
New Runtime :70 minutes
Amount of time Cut/Added :you can't put it that way
Cuts removed/added/extended :removed: check, added: check, extended:hell, no

Fanedit details :
NTSC SL DVD
anamorphic widescreen
ac-3 2.0 audio
created from 7 youtube videos, until a better quality version is available
can be either watched as complete or as the 7 single parts
menus with sound

Purpose of this fanedit:
from Scott Macauley: "this isn't your usual fanboy rant, this is an epic, well-edited well-constructed piece of geek film criticism. In fact, the way I learned about the video was from Lost co-creator and Star Trek producer Damon Lindelof, who said "Your life is about to change. This is astounding film making.
This is the type of deconstruction of that shit film and Lucas I've been waiting for. It's like the culmination of every hate-spewed conversation you've ever had about the prequels and George himself--but hilarious. Also, douches, he's mispronouncing things on purpose to be funny."

read the full article here

How purpose was achieved: by carefully addressing what had to be addressed. Sorted, constructed, thought through, with lots and and lots of examples.

Hardware and software information : not known
boon23: for the DVD creation I used avisynth and virtualdub filters to get rid of some noise, corrected the black levels (as the youtube videos are very milky), cropped to what was possible for a widescreen format (sorry for the sidebars, but it was either that or full-screen), converted carefully to mpg, created cover art and DVD menus for a neat presentation.

overall I think the quality is really ok considering the youtube source. This one will nto be watched for its awesome sound or video quality, but for its awesome content.

Additional Comment: boon23: this is the most hilarious thing I have watched in a long time. Great texts, very clever, never boring. This was a hell lot of work and it totally rocks. This is why I had to put it on DVD, so you guys can share it with your loved ones or buddies. It is what so many people think when it comes to the first of the Star Wars prequels.

The original creator has been contacted by me for higher quality source files or for his very own DVD version (if such a thing exists).
Time needed for the edition: must have been VERY long
persons involved: RedLetterMedia
Additional information links: you can find all the youtube videos here: "]
IMAGES:
cover art by boon23 (download here)


downloadable from fanedit.info, streamed on youtube

Nice. I coulda done without the captive young lady, but still, nice.

I liked this quite a bit and I'd recommend it to everyone, but how does this qualify as a "true fanedit"? I guess it passes the 4th rule test (the staff of FE decides if something is accurate as TF or not), but it seems like an odd place to put it.

I watched this on youtube the other day. Quite interesting.
It points many incoherences that I felt watching the movie without really knowing how to put them into words. (sorry for maybe bad english here! hope I made myself clear)

It is as much a true fanedit as The Sith Revealed, Deleted Magic, Returning To Jedi, etc.
When the SE were split from FE.org we had to decide what to keep and for what reason. This here is edited official video for the purpose of a new presentation aka a fanedit. Using various sources something unique and new was created.
I am sure you talk about altered original movies here, and yes, that is and will always be our main focus. Yet this is a fancreated edit using a lot of official sources.

TMBTM said:

I watched this on youtube the other day. Quite interesting.
It points out many incoherences that I felt watching the movie without really knowing how to put them into words. (sorry for maybe bad english here! hope I made myself clear)

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You made yourself perfectly clear, TMBTM. There is very little wrong with your English. I corrected the only minor mistake in that sentence in red, for future reference, if you are interested. Incoherencies is probably more common.

I felt the same way, when I watched the documentary. I only hope I can watch TPM again without cringing all the way through.

I hope you used the mp4 files, as they are vastly superior than the flv versions.

It's awesome. Great stuff and a must-watch fanedit.

zeppelinrox said:

I hope you used the mp4 files, as they are vastly superior than the flv versions.

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well, of course.

This is excellent. Funniest 70 minutes I've watched in ages. Thanks for making a DVD Boon.

white43 said:

This is excellent. Funniest 70 minutes I've watched in ages. Thanks for making a DVD Boon.

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you are very welcome. I am glad if this is enjoyed over the limitations of youtube.

I see some spelling errors on the back cover, but that's ok. I will start downloading this one soonly. Sounds like fun.

awesome! I was going to do this same project for myself but now I can leech of your skills!
thanks boon!

This was incredibly enjoyable. I could comment all night on how this guy truly hit home here. I think the video editing could have been tweeked slightly, but overall, every little nuance added to the brilliance of this video. fantastic!!!


What I lenvisioned at the end is that RedLetterMedia IS GL, and that he had a mega-facepalm, got drunk and made this video

I sent this review to two people who I thought would be a bit 'meh'. In both cases they watched the full 70 minutes and loved it.

Has anyone checked out his other reviews?

His Star Trek ones are also good. If there is interest I can create a DVD from these as well.

Aye, from the snippets of the TNG movie reviews I watched, he's pretty fair. The thing about the Trek movies, though, is if you don't like one of them, you can not only almost always skip to the next without missing anything whatsoever (III and IV being the only exceptions, I believe) but also go to hundreds of TV episodes. Whereas, if you don't like the PT, that's half of the live-action saga right there.

I see now that he has been contacted. Would be fun to hear his reply about the DVD, and what he thinks of fan edits, if anything. You'll let us know Boon?

spelledaren said:

I see now that he has been contacted. Would be fun to hear his reply about the DVD, and what he thinks of fan edits, if anything. You'll let us know Boon?

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of course.

Guess what...
[youtube:2ha82mud]Get those pizza rolls ready. :grin: